Groups welcome a cross party bill on party funding

Unlock Democracy has welcomed the publication of a draft bill, drafted by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, Labour MP Alan Whitehead and Liberal Democrat Peer Paul Tyler. The draft bill seeks to incorporate the proposals on party funding proposed by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in 2011 in a way that would be revenue neutral. 

The Committee on Standards in Public Life proposed imposing a £10,000 annual cap in donations from individuals and corporations and introducing a system of state funding of political parties; these proposals were instantly dismissed by the main parties who argued that they were unaffordable in the current climate.

The cross party working group however has come up with a way of making the system revenue neutral, by replacing the existing system in which all parliamentary candidates are entitled to have an election mailing sent to every elector, to a system of election address booklets, as is currently used for mayoral elections.

Commenting on the proposals, the Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey said: "We very warmly welcome this proposed bill; it is potentially a game changer, after years of deadlock. At a stroke, its authors have changed the debate from 'how can we afford this?' to 'what funding system should we have?' The proposals to reform the election 'freepost' are not without consequence, but in our opinion the advantages outweigh the drawbacks. It would result in voters in less contested seats getting more information than at present and make financing less of a barrier for candidates to participate. The precise method of how political parties should be funded remains an open question in our view, although we appreciate that their starting point is the Committee on Standards in Public Life's proposals. Unlock Democracy believes that a system of matched funding for donations up to £50 would do much more to encourage political parties to engage with the electorate than a money-per-vote system, which is the main proposal in the draft bill. Voting for a party's candidate shouldn't be interpreted to mean support for a party in any case, especially with the system we use to elect MPs."

The Electoral Reform Society has also welcomed the bill as it comes just days after the Electoral Commission published donors for the first quarter of 2013. Labour received over £1.5 million from John Mills, founder of homeshopping company JML Direct, while the Tories received £500,000 a piece from the wife of a former arms dealer, and the Chief Executive of head of mining conglomerate Xstrata. The Society has called on the party leaders to use this opportunity to break the deadlock.

Darren Hughes, Director of Campaigns and Research for the Electoral Reform Society said: This bill puts pay to the myth that cross-party solution to party funding isn't possible. Caps on spending and donations are the only logical response to the electoral arms race. This weeks figures show how reliant the parties have become on a dwindling number of big donors. And it's only natural for the public to question their motives. That policies are not for sale should be beyond doubt. We have reached an impasse because our political class only seem to be motivated by their own bank balances. They need to understand that delay has a price , and that's public trust in politics. An open, clean and fair model of funding the parties would give taxpayers far better value for money. It would ensure our politicians don't have to dance to the tune of trusts, union bosses or City interests. We cannot wait for the next scandal. All the parties have been tainted by party funding. Party leaders need to take this opportunity break the deadlock, and break the hold of big money on our politics."

The Draft Bill will be launched in the Houses of Parliament on Thursday 16 May and be open for consultation until Friday 31 May. 

Women over 50 are disappearing from our tv screens

Labour's Deputy Leader and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, Harriet Harman, had today released figures showing that women TV presenters disappear from our screens as they get older. As part of the work of the Older Women’s Commission, Harriet Harman wrote to the six main UK broadcasters asking them how many older women they employ on screen and behind the camera. This is the first time this information has been published. Their findings include:

• The majority of over 50s in the UK are women (53.1%) but the overwhelming majority of TV presenters who are over 50 are men (82%)
• While TV presenters are broadly reflective of age in the general population (30% of TV presenters are over 50 compared with 34% of the UK population) they are wholly unrepresentative in terms of gender
• Only 7% of the total TV workforce (on and off-screen) are women over the age of 50
• While TV presenters under 50 are broadly representative of the gender balance in the population (48% of TV presenters are under the age of 50 are women compared to 49.7% of women under 50 in the general population) women are wholly under represented amongst TV presenters over the age of 50
• Harriet Harman will be holding a roundtable with broadcasters in the House of Commons today to challenge them to take action.

Ms Harman said: "The figures provided by broadcasters show clearly that once female presenters hit 50, their days on-screen are numbered. There is a combination of ageism and sexism that hits women on TV that doesn’t apply to men in the same way. It is an encouraging first step that broadcasters have been open in providing these statistics. Their response shows that they all recognise that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed. I will be publishing these figures annually so we are able to monitor progress."

Ex-Countryfile presenter and ageism campaigner Miriam O’Reilly said: "These figures raise the obvious questions of where have all the older women gone and why did they go? Was it their choice to leave their jobs or was it a decision forced upon them? The broadcasters say they are committed to the fair representation of older women, but the figures don't bear that out. I'd like to know the reasons why so many talented women have disappeared, while their male counterparts have grown older and still have their jobs."

Labour attack the Tories for banging on about Europe

Members of the Shadow Cabinet have attacked the Conservatives for, to use David Cameron's phrase "banging on about Europe" after rebel backbenchers published an amendment to the Queen's speech which expresses "regret" that there was no referendum bill in the speech. Following reports from last night that David Cameron is planning on publishing a referendum bill which will be from the Conservative party and not the Coalition. It is also understood that the Liberal Democrats will block the Conservatives using Government Time for the Bill so it'll have to enter as a Private Members Bill (PMB) which can simply be talked out of time. As many Conservatives who will be supporting this Bill have done with other PMBs.

Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, responding to David Cameron's announcement to publish a bill for an EU vote, said: "This seems to be just the latest panicked response from the Prime Minister who is now following, rather than leading his backbenchers. David Cameron is a Prime Minister who has both lost control of the agenda and lost control of his Party. Labour have said that we don't think committing now to an in/out referendum up to four years from now is in the national interest because the priority must be getting growth into the economy not getting Britain out of Europe. This latest step has more to do with trying to get his Party back in line rather than getting the economy back on track."

The Shadow Defence Secretary, Jim Murphy, criticised the Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond after he told the BBC's Sunday Politics that he would vote to leave the EU. Mr Murphy said: "Rather than posturing to the Conservative Party over Europe, the Defence Secretary should get to grips with defence procurement. This is the second damaging report which has proven the Defence Secretary's claims to have balanced the budget to be totally false. There are unanswered questions and unfinished business in defence procurement reform, but unfortunately the Defence Secretary is wasting time and money."

Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, used Conservative opposition to the European Arrest Warrant to attack the Tories, saying: "This is the real consequence of the Conservative party’s frenzy and infighting over Europe. They say they want to export foreign criminals yet they want to ditch the European Arrest Warrant which allowed us to swiftly deport 900 foreign citizens suspected of crimes in their own country. They say they want the police to catch criminals. Yet they want to ditch the European Arrest Warrant that has allowed us to catch terrorists, kidnappers and serious criminals who fled abroad and bring them back to face justice. And they want to pull out of the European Arrest Warrant at the very same time that they are using it to bring one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives back to serve punishment for his crime."

Moving onto the Andrew Moran case, the British fugitive arrested in Spain this weekend, Ms Cooper said: "This weekend Spanish police tracked down and arrested Andrew Moran – the Salford man who has been on the run for four years after a £25,000 armed robbery involving guns and a machete. He was found sunbathing in a villa in Alicante Yesterday he was remanded in custody, and the British government is now pursuing his rapid return here. Yet he was arrested under the very warrant the Government wants to rip up. This week they want him deported under the very warrant they say should be abandoned."

Lib Dem MEP: Moran case shows need to keep EAW

The Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford has said she welcomes the arrest of Andrew Moran, one of Britain's most wanted criminals, at a luxury villa in Spain's Costa Blanca. Mr Moran was charged with armed robbery in 2005, but escaped justice by fleeing to Spain before being convicted in absence of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and placed on the Serious Organised Crime Agency's most wanted list. He is set to be extradited back to the UK using the European Arrest Warrant after appearing before a Spanish court earlier today.

Sarah Ludford commented about the European Arrest Warrant and some Conservatives wanting the British to withdraw from it: "Without the European Arrest Warrant, Andrew Moran would have been able to evade British justice for his armed robbery conviction by sitting on a beach in Spain's Costa Blanca. Remarkably many Conservatives have called for the UK to opt out of the EAW even though top police officers have warned them against this. If these Tory Eurosceptics had their way, serious criminals like Mr Moran would be able to escape justice by fleeing abroad." 

Concluding Ms Ludford said: As a Liberal Democrat, I have been campaigning hard for the UK to keep the EAW so our police have the tools they need to catch criminals. I welcome the recent news that the Home Secretary Theresa May has finally listened to the Liberal Democrats and decided that the UK should remain in the EAW so that criminals cannot escape British justice."

Parliamentary security staff to hold a 24 hour strike

Up to 300 security staff at the Palace of Westminster will stage a twenty four hour strike tomorrow in a long-running row over imposed shift patterns, the Public and Commercial Services union announces. The workers, employed by the Metropolitan Police, keep the Palace of Westminster safe and secure, and are well respected by MPs, peers, parliamentary staff and visitors.

Staff accepted two years ago that shifts had to change as overtime is currently paid on Friday nights because there are not enough volunteers but, the PCS say that, during protracted talks senior Met officials repeatedly moved the goalposts when the union presented a series of proposals. Now the PCS claim the Met is imposing its own roster today despite 95% of the security guards boycotting a ballot on whether to accept it because of the risks its poses to their health and wellbeing.

The latest alternative drawn up by staff would mean a longer run of night shifts but with more days off in between, while being fully compliant with European working time and health and safety regulations. In light of the Met's refusal to re-enter talks, 74% of the union's members voted for a strike and 91.5% voted for other forms of industrial action, on a 44% turnout. The walkout, from 6am Tuesday to 6am Wednesday, will seriously disrupt security arrangements in parliament, with police officers expected to be drafted in to provide cover at great expense. The 24-hour stoppage will be followed by a three-day work to rule and overtime ban.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Anyone who works in parliament or has ever visited will have been greeted by these friendly, dedicated security staff who have been treated appallingly by their Met Police bosses. It is outrageous that the Met is trying to impose new ways of working on staff who have bent over backwards to come up with suitable alternatives, only to be ignored."

Bob Crow calls for the UK to withdraw from the EU

The RMT has today called for a British withdrawal from the EU and attacked the media for only using right-wing voices from the anti-EU side of the debate when in fact it is the working class that are suffering most across Europe as a result of the bankers and business-led austerity measures.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "“RMT’s position is clear, not only should there be an early in/out referendum but also we are calling unequivocally for British withdrawal. “Across Europe, and specifically in Spain and Greece which are at the eye of the storm, it is the working class who are suffering the most as democracy is ripped apart and the EU and the central bank demand cuts to jobs, wages and pensions and wholesale privatisation of public assets."

Turning his attack on to the media and the Tories, especially the Education Secretary Michael Gove, Mr Crow said: "“RMT will not sit back and allow this debate to be dominated by UKIP and the right wing of the Tory Party. Ministers like Michael Gove are now only raising the issue of withdrawal out of pure political opportunism. He could not care less about the rates of youth unemployment across Europe, the only concern of these Tory “Johnny Come Lately’s” is saving their own political skins."

Making the case for why the left should campaign for a British exit of the EU Mr Crow said: “RMT will continue to set out the left wing, pro-worker case for British withdrawal from the EU that puts jobs, standards of living, democracy and public services centre stage. The truth is that you cannot be pro-EU and anti-austerity when the whole structure of the European project is dominated by the interests of bankers and big business, the driving forces behind the imposition of austerity measures across the Continent.”"

Boris: "We should be ready to leave the EU"

The London Mayor Boris Johnson has waded into the current argument within the Conservative party over the UK's membership of the European Union. The Mayor said the UK should be prepared to walk away from the European Union if the Prime Minister, David Cameron, can't get the renegotiated agreement that he wants. 

Mr Johnson said: "What I want to see and what I think the Prime Minister wants to see is Europe realising that the reason the Eurozone is a microclimate of gloom at the moment isn't just the Euro, the problem is there are all sorts of rules and regulations in the past 20 -30 years that have been dreamt up by Brussels, supply side stuff, that is holding back growth on the continent. We need a renegotiation to get rid of some of that nonsense and to make the whole area more competitive and if that fails, then yes obviously we should be ready to walk away, we should be ready to leave. I don’t think that that is as existential, as dramatic a step, as it was ten/twenty years ago. London, the UK, has to be a global player.” 

The Mayor also dismissed the idea the UK should be scared of leaving the EU saying: “Absolutely not fatal, no. And to talk of losing three million jobs is complete nonsense. And if we're honest, democratically it would be a shot in the arm because people would suddenly feel yes, we're running our own destiny again. Our politics is entirely independent, British electors can really choose the people who are taking the decisions that affect their lives. That would be a very important benefit. You'd have to make sure you weren’t losing access to those markets and you weren't damaging the interests of British business. That's why I’ve always been in favour, broadly, of being in the single market. I want to see a solid renegotiation, we’ve got to sit down with our friends and partners and say, look this thing isn’t working for any of us...the Eurozone is becoming a zone of misery. We need a new approach to the EU economy generally."

The London Mayor's intervention comes as news of a Tory rebel backbench amendment to the Queen's Speech was published which is worded: "This House respectfully regrets that an EU Referendum Bill was not included in the Gracious Speech." Speculation is that the Speaker, John Bercow is likely to accept the amendment so it can be voted on. The Labour party have said they'll be whipping their MPs to vote against as will the Liberal Democrats. Conservative Ministers will also be whipped to vote against, Conservative backbenchers seem to of been given a green light to vote for the amendment if they wish too.